winter break update

Year 12, Day 347 - 12/12/20 

I have not watched a new movie in nearly a month, and that's an odd feeling.  I've kept my nights full by binge-watching "What We Do in the Shadows" on Hulu, then "Portlandia" on Netflix, and now I'm close to finishing "Iron Fist", the last of the previous run of Marvel Comics shows, in preparation for the next round of Marvel shows that are (eventually) coming to Disney+.  I wish I could say I've been out Christmas shopping, or even online Christmas shopping, but I just can't seem to get that together.  Who even knows if there's going to be a Christmas get-together at this point, because the second wave of the COVID pandemic has hit (second in NYC, third in other areas of the country) and we're all basically housebound again, indoor dining's going to close down again next week, so it's take-out or go grocery shopping once again.  I did manage to get some Christmas cards & mix CDs mailed out, and I'll work on more today.

I did a couple of re-watches, like last night I re-watched "The Last Waltz", even though it wasn't THAT long ago that I did my music doc chain, but I found it was available on EPIX on Demand, but in July I had paid to rent it on iTunes.  Oh, well, now I can burn it to DVD, along with the 2019 Woodstock documentary that played on PBS about a month ago.  "The Last Waltz" still holds up, and it's even better when I allow myself to fast-forward over the performances of Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and Neil Diamond.  The version of "The Weight" with the Staples Singers is so glorious I found myself tearing up.  I stand by my rating of an "8" and I wish someone would make a Hollywood fictionalized version of the history of The Band, with Pedro Pascal (or Paul Rudd) as Rick Danko and Adam Sandler making a cameo as Bob Dylan.  I probably said this before. 

The other thing keeping me busy is running a Kickstarter campaign, which is a round-the-clock affair.  I have tasks to do on my off-days, even on the weekends, plus then there's checking the campaign obsessively to see if anyone new has pledged in the last fifteen minutes.  Getting the word out on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is another all-day, every day affair.  And I rarely, if ever, promote my own projects here on the blog, nor do I ever feature any advertising or monetization of any kind. (Not that I wouldn't if I could, it just has never been offered to me as a possibility.). But I would like to appeal to my tens of long-time readers, assuming they're out there, to consider supporting this project.  

Look at it this way, if the campaign succeeds, then I'm sure to be employed for the next year, and then I can for sure keep providing the type of commentary and obscure actor linking that you've come to expect.  And I'm at the point where I need to get the word out on every possible venue, and take every possible road to create further awareness, because with under a week to go, I'd be remiss if I didn't try absolutely everything to move that needle.  So, if you can visit the campaign at the link below and consider donating and helping to spread the word, I'd greatly appreciate it.  Plus, you'd be helping out an independent animator and keeping him in business and creating his own art his way.  The campaign is at:

KickstartSlide.com

Much obliged, and since the campaign ends on December 17, I'll be back here shortly after that with my review of "Bad Santa 2", then I'll wrap up the year with more Christmas movies.  The timing of the campaign is really helpful, it filled up my time off from movies, and it's ending (ideally successfully) a week before Christmas.